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Week One: The clean-up

Now that we have the time, we are finally starting to take steps to get the garden under control. I told a lot of people that the garden was crazy but I don’t think anyone really understood exactly what I meant, many commented ‘I love gardening’, then when they see it they mostly seem shocked and say, ‘Oh, wow this really IS crazy’. I guess you could more accurately describe it as a jungle. The old man who lived there loved his garden but obviously he hasn’t been able to work in the garden for at least 10 years.

We have really started to see progress now, which feels awesome! Reassuring that this big renovation project is possible. Our neighbours have also been stopping by to say how glad they are to see that someone is finally clearing the jungle. One neighbour said she hasn’t seen the house in years.

So what have we done?

1) Cleaned out and painted the garage. We need to store a lot of tools and deliveries in here, so we thought this was a good place to start! We put in a new concrete floor and and gave it one rough coat of paint.

Before Photos:

After Photo:

2) Taken the ivy down from the walls of the house and little outside area. SHIT JOB! That stuff is evil! I used to think it was pretty but it really is just a weed. It leaves all of the Arial roots on the wall which are pretty much impossible to take off. We started today to get these off with the high pressure hose, it doesn’t get them all but it makes a difference. I will put up some after photos when it is done.

3) Trimmed back bushes, cut grass and chopped down about 12 trees… that is right 12! Not all small either. The difference is astounding. So much more light and everything feels so much bigger.